Fedko-brigand (Федько-халамидник англійською) - Винниченко Володимир

But I didn't find a stick for this business... Let's go together? Eh?"

Spirka and Styopka hesitated; they have to go to school tomorrow.

"Oh, to school! Nothing will happen if we skip one day."

Tolya felt scared listening to such conversations, but he hadn't the strength to go away. The guys thought for a while, and decided after all to go to the river the next day. They negotiated that tomorrow exactly at eight o'clock the three of them would come to the place where they met today. When Fedko came to the meeting the next day, he saw there Spirka, Styopka, and... Tolya. He was all wrapped in scarves through which only the tip of the nose and the eyes peeked out. His eyes looked somehow odd: either guilty or frightened. Fedko was surprised to see Tolya.

"Why did you come here? Do you want to join us?"

Tolya blushed a little and said, "I'll just go, watch for a while and go to school after that."

"Ok, go, watch," – Fedko agreed and started to pull out a stick out of snow. He had hidden it there yesterday evening. The stick was great! The tip of the stick was sharp, with the pointed nail, so that if you embed it into ice, you won't slip. He tied the books to his stomach and covered them with his sheepskin coat. His appearance was funny because he looked so pot-bellied.

"Just like your tato..." Spirka said to Tolya. That was true, Tolya saw it himself, but he began to feel unpleasant. "Tato"... Not "tato", but "papa". And what's bad about his papa having a bigger belly than their tatos? Because his papa is rich; that's all. (A note to the text: in Ukrainian, "dad" is translated as "tato", while in pre-revolutionary Russia it was fashionable among Ukrainian nobility to speak Russian and use Russian definitions, for example this one. "Papa" is "dad" in Russian. That's why I didn't translate it here.)

All the same, Tolya didn't reply; for he was a delicate and well-behaved boy. Fedko, on the other hand, would definitely start saying rude things or even start a fight should someone dare to say something bad about his dad. But Tolya even said something to Spirka. However, Spirka didn't hear him, because at that time they are already near the bottom of the hill. They stopped their conversations — the river was in front of their eyes. There hadn't been a spring flood yet, but the river had become so odd! It was gray, pitted, and carroty. People are crowding and walking around on the shore. The sun cunningly peeks out from behind the steam mill. Screaming crows fly somewhere in flocks. How the tip of the cross on the Church of Epiphany glitters! Ah, what a beautiful view!..

"Hey, let's see who will get there first!" Fedko shouted suddenly and rushed forward like a whirlwind. Styopka and Spirka yelled and ran after him. Tolya also wanted to shout and run, and even punt with his leg like Styopka did, but he couldn't do that: shouting in the street doesn't befit noble children, it was too hard to run because his sheepskin coat was too long and heavy, and he wore deep galoshes on his feet. He also carried a bag full of books on his back. Tolya could only watch how Styopka and Spirka scooted. When Styopka lost his books, he stopped, picked them up, punted with his leg again, and kept following the guys who ran ahead. Tolya managed to catch up with them only when he came to the river itself.

At such close range, the river seemed to be even weirder. It was easily seen how, little by little, the ice was melting. The ice cracked and peeled away, big pieces of ice crashing into each other; the sight was quite similar to that of oxen being driven out to pasture. A gray mass of livestock moved slowly; but if an ox hit another one, chaos arose in that place, oxen hit each other, and they stood flailing until the ones causing the blockage finally moved forward.

People were crowding along the entire length of the shore. There were lots of boys among the adults, and they didn't stop screaming in sonorous and cheerful voices. How many schoolchildren were there who would tell their teachers tomorrow that they had a "headache" that day and couldn't come "to the classes". The river kept flowing wildly, and ice floes rubbed against each other with wet cracking. They were so venerable, old, and yellow. Where did they come from? It would be so nice to sit on one of them and ride on it to someplace far away. There were lots of other ice floes around, so you'd have to push them away so they didn't crash into the piece of ice where you sat; because if they did, you'd be drowned. It'd be good if you jumped onto another ice floe in time, but what would happen if you didn't and fell in the water? And the water was, ooh, black, deep and cold; it even squeaked.

But there appeared daredevils who jumped on the floes and rode on them for a while. Dozens of boyish eyes were following fine fellows with envy. And the fine fellows stomped the ice with their legs; you see, the ice was sturdy, so no one would fall through it. Some of them jumped on other pieces of ice and stood on purpose on the very edge of them, just above the black-blue thick water.

"Hey, you there! Do you want to feed crayfish?" one of the adults screamed at a fine fellow. "Go back to the shore! If he falls in the water, it'll be so troublesome to get him out..."

The fine fellow seemed not to hear, but after stomping a bit more on the ice, he came back. Tolya looked at Fedko from time to time: well, why doesn't he go and try it too? Fedko was saying something to Spirka and Styopka, pointing his head towards the river. Tolya came closer and started to listen to him.

"That's it! They're jumping here..." Fedko said, "and what's actually cool in it? Nope, the main hero is the one who can cross the river on ice!"

"Well, to the opposite side!" Styopka shook his head, "But if ice takes you away, what will you do?"

"You can jump on another ice floe!" His eyes shone with enthusiasm. "And from that one to another too!.. Just do that! Will you do that? Eh?"

"What about you? Can you do it?"

"Well, maybe I'll do..."

Tolya was terribly anxious to see how Fedko would jump from one ice floe to another. He'll be jumping and, of course, get frightened after a while and begin to weep: he'll be taken back to the shore and after that everyone will laugh at him. He'll be humiliated. He'll know then that he shouldn't whistle until he's out of the wood.

"You'll ne-ve-r be able to do that!" Tolya said to Fedko, pointing at the river. Fedko looked at him in silence and didn't answer anything. But Tolya noticed how Fedko's lips got pale, and his gaze became so weird and sharp when he was looking at ice. Yeah! He's definitely got frightened.

"Come on, why don't you try it?" Tolya said again, "You boasted that you'd ride on ice, didn't you? Come o-on!"

Huge pieces of ice came towards them and moved away. From time to time they broke, and a black terrible patch of water appeared between them. In that water, straw and wooden sticks floated. Both straw and sticks were spinning and disappeared somewhere — such a great swirl formed there.

"You know what, let's bet that I'll cross the river!" Fedko instantly turned to Tolya.

"Oh, you won't!"

"No, let's bet! What's your wager? If I cross the river, you'll give me your pocket knife — the one with a bone handle. If I don't, I'll give you my siskin. Deal?"

Tolya didn't want to have a siskin at all — what would he do with it? — but he agreed.

"Well, okay! Give me your hand. Spirka, break it."

After Spirka broke it, Fedko started to gird tighter, having cautiously given his schoolbooks to Styopka.

"But keep it quiet..." Fedko said to everyone, "If anyone knows that I'm going to the opposite side, I won't be allowed to go. Let them think that I want to wander near the shore."

"Okay!.."

Fedko girded, took his stick, checked it, and tucked his beanie tighter.

"Well, look out!" He pronounced that phrase in a somehow strange voice, looking at Tolya, and went ahead to the river despite the great risk of danger.

"Fedko went! Fedko went!" boys, who had already instigated him for long time to go there, shouted. Fedko jumped on the first ice floe and, as if testing it, stomped his feet on the ice. This one was good, thick and solid. Fedko approached the next one little by little, walking and measuring with his stick, if it were thick enough. After that, he looked back quickly and suddenly jumped upon the second floe. Spirka, Styopka, and Tolya were watching him with bated breath.

"You there! Where're you going?" some worker from aside shouted to Fedko. "Where the hell are you going? Come back!"

But Fedko, as if he didn't hear anything, ran to the edge of the ice floe and started looking for a new one. This one was too thin. He tried to put pressure on it — the ice was bending. People behind him were screaming, waving their hands, and asking him to come back before it's too late. Fedko chose another — it was thicker. Taking a running jump, he sprang. The ice floe only shook slightly under his weight; that was all.

"He's truly gone insane, this leper!" the others on the shore shouted.

"Where the hell is he going? Hey, you, come back here immediately!"

"Well, just take a look at this stupefied guy!"

"Run, bring him back, this son of a bitch!"

But it was too late to run after him. Fedko rode downstream on the ice, and he was in the middle of the river. Sometimes he turned around, his beanie hanging on his stick. He twirled it merrily and screamed something. It was impossible to hear what exactly he was saying, but it was definitely something cheerful and fervent.

"Whose son is he?" everyone asked.

"He is Fedko, the son of Ivan, typographer. A famous brigand."

"What a reckless guy... Ah, just take a look at him, how is he doing it! Oh, Goodness!"

And Fedko was doing something really incredible on the river. Sometimes he crawled on his stomach on thin ice sheets, leaned on the stick, and jumped over patches of water, or he ran from one edge of an ice floe to another, having no way out. It seemed that huge drift of ice would burn into him, smash the guy, and there wouldn't be any traces of the crumb-boy.